Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who has ruled himself out of electoral politics, has filed his nomination for the biennial Rajya Sabha election from Madha constituency on Friday.

The Election Commission has recently announced the election schedule for the Upper House of Parliament. There are seven seats of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra whose term expires on April 2.

NCP has two retiring members YP Trivedi and Janardhan Waghmare.

NCP sources said the two members may be replaced by new faces, which includes Sharad Pawar himself.

Early this month, Pawar declared that he will not seek re-election to the Lok Sabha from Maadha constituency and instead would be in the Rajya Sabha as biennial elections are scheduled soon.

The notification for the polls were issued on January 21. Last date of filing of nomination is January 28. The scrutiny of papers will be done on January 29 and the last date of withdrawal of papers is January 31. The date of poll and counting is scheduled for February 7.

Congress has yet to decide on whether it would renominate sitting MPs Hussain Dalwai and Murli Deora. The other retiring members include BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar and Shiv Sena’s Bharat Kumar Raut and Rajkumar Dhoot.

RPI’s Ramdas Athavale, who is an ally of the Sena-BJP, has claimed that he has been assured a Rajya Sabha seat from the saffron quota. Shiv Sena is yet to take a decision on the issue.
Meanwhile, Pawar has declared assets worth Rs. 32.13 crore. The 73-year old NCP chief has Rs. 5.06 crore movable assets while his wife Pratibha has Rs. 13.37 crore in her name.
Similarly, they have Rs. 2.03 crore as part of the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). Pawar has a 958 sq.ft flat at Sansad Vihar in New Delhi. He does not own a vehicle. He purchased the Delhi flat in April 2004.
The cost at the time of purchase was Rs. 16.29 lakh and the current market value is approximately Rs. 1.34 crore. His self accquired immovable assets are valued at Rs. 4.22 crore. Pratibha Pawar’s inherited assets are valued at Rs. 92 lakh. While immovable assets under HUF are Rs. 4.77 crore.
The second NCP candidate Memon has declared assets worth Rs. 13.98 crore. While Shiv Sena candidate Rajkumar Shoot has assets worth Rs. 18.27 crore.